Wayne Rooney Reveals Champions League Crisis Talks at Manchester United

Wayne Rooney has given an insight into the current situation at Manchester United, revealing he and his fellow team-mates held crisis talks after their crushing 3-0 defeat to Liverpool, at Old Trafford.

David McDonnell of The Mirrorwrites that Rooney and the United players took it upon themselves to rectify their problems ahead of their Champions League match against Olympiakos.

He quoted Rooney saying:

I’m not going to confirm the details of what happened, but obviously we talk. We talk after every game, whether we win, lose or draw, but we knew as a team what went wrong on Sunday.

We didn’t need anyone to tell us and we came out and delivered a big performance against Olympiakos.

I think Sunday, as all the players will admit, was a devastating result for us. To lose 3-0 the way we did was hard to take and we had to stand up and really be at our best against Olympiakos, because that wasn’t good enough.

United defeated Olympiakos 3-0 on Wednesday night to win the tie 3-2 on aggregate. They will now take their place in the last eight of the competition, leaving them with an outside chance of taking some glory from a disastrous campaign.

The game also saw a rare start for United veteran Rio Ferdinand. The former England captain gave his take on the victory and the response from everyone at the club.

He tweeted:

Results haven't been what we all want at #mufc lately but the support has been immense,we feel&need that support to pass the difficult times

Despite their poor form in domestic football, United have been offered some light relief by their Champions League performances this season.

The team now have 15 goals from their eight games, only losing once this campaign, per Squawka.

Michael Regan/Getty Images

The season of 2013-14 has been one to forget for United supporters and their players. It has been a steep learning curve for David Moyes as he experiences the pressures and expectations of managing one of the biggest clubs in the world.

Tactically, Moyes has been naive at times, playing his preferred system of 4-4-2, but on Wednesday he opted for the more suitable 4-2-3-1 and it paid dividends.

The victory should buy Moyes some precious time and allow him to move the club forward to the vision he has set out, but United must maintain this performance level for his house of cards to not fall once again.

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United fans have lost the trust they might have had early on after Sir Alex Ferguson's directive that everyone at the club should stand by the new manager, per Simon Stone of TheIndependent. Now it is up to the former Everton boss to prove he can maintain a sufficient standard to remain at the helm next season.

If he does stay, he will be given access to funds like no other manager has had at United, and he will have to spend it wisely. Otherwise his team will struggle again next season after falling so far behind the pack of Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal.

It is a huge task for Moyes and he will need many more nights like Wednesday to prove his worth.